Play-off final vs Aston Villa

datura said:
There was only one where he missed the target. A few good saves, one or two he should have done better with but he's forgiven for being a bit rusty in his first game back. It was more important that he was getting in the positions and he scored the one that mattered to level it at the end.
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Thats cool, It's just makes it sound like he was spamming them everywhere, as long as he's shooting on target thats all that matters at this stage.
 
no individual medals , just pendants must be a recession
 
You can shove it up your arse you City, Arsenal and West Ham. The cream of the crop is here in Manchester.
 
Redrage said:
You can shove it up your arse you City, Arsenal and West Ham. The cream of the crop is here in Manchester.
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Winning at this level is great for the lads but we need them to come through to make the 1st team. I have hopes for some of them particularly some from the youth
 
Terrific updates as always lads, I found myself getting more and more excited by Macheda just by reading the updates.
 
Reserves: United 3 Villa 3 (3-2 on pens)

03/05/2010 13:52, Report by Steve Bartram

United edged an enthralling Barclays Premier Reserve League Play-Off Final against Aston Villa, thrice recovering from falling behind before eventually taking the title in a nerve-shredding penalty shootout.

Mame Biram Diouf's double and a Kiko Macheda penalty kept United in the contest during normal time, but goalkeeper Ben Foster was the shootout hero; making two saves and scoring what proved to be the winning kick.

Villa can consider themselves unfortunate to taste defeat after putting in an excellent shift at Old Trafford, but United's never-say-die mantra ultimately won the day.

Mindful of the fixture's prestige, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Warren Joyce named a side featuring several players with first team experience. Most surprisingly, Rafael came in for his first Reserves appearance of 2010 at right-back.

Nevertheless, Villa made by far the brighter start to the game. Marc Albrighton and Ciaran Clark had already passed up half-chances before Delfouneso missed a jaw-dropping sitter. Albrighton's superb back-post cross was nodded across goal by Dominik Hofbauer, only for Villa's number 9 to nod over the open goal from four yards.

It took Delfouneso just 10 more minutes to atone, however, as he took a pass from Barry Bannan, held off the attentions of Ritchie De Laet and dragged a low shot inside the post, with Foster wrong-footed. Andreas Weimann shot inches wide as Villa continued to press for more, but United sprang into life just after the half-hour.

Firstly, Diouf raced onto Ollie Norwood's through-ball, only to have his shot saved by Andy Marshall. The pair then combined again, but Norwood's clever low free-kick was powered over from 10 yards by the Senegalese striker.

Only a vital block from Rafael prevented Andreas Hofbauer from doubling Villa's advantage as the visitors continued to threaten on the break, but Diouf was soon denied again by Marshall, who saved superbly with his feet.

Just before half-time, however, parity was restored. Diouf seized on a poor touch from Clark and nicked the ball to Macheda, before racing into the area and side-footing the Italian's return pass past Marshall, via the inside of the far post.

Villa could feel slightly aggrieved that their dominance had gone unrewarded as half-time came and went, but their response was positive. Weimann chanced his arm twice in the opening four minutes of the second half, curled past Foster's top corner and then drawing a smart stop from the England international.

Weimann's influence was growing, however, and he played a major role as Villa retook the lead. Having pounced on a miscontrol by De Laet, the Austrian motored towards goal and pulled back for Delfouneso to smash a finish into the roof of the net.

The response from the United bench was the introduction of Gabriel Obertan at the expense of Cameron Stewart. Almost immediately, Rafael released Diouf again, but the striker scuffed his attempt to chip the onrushing Marshall.

Nevertheless, the Reds were soon level. Skipper Corry Evans latched onto Macheda's neat through-ball but tumbled under Jonathan Hogg's challenge, prompting referee Lee Mason to award the penalty.

With one famous Stretford End strike against the Villans already to his name, Macheda remained ice-cool under the circumstances, and nonchalantly caressed the spot-kick in, via the inside of Marshall's post.

An absorbing encounter continued to swing to and fro, and Macheda almost put United ahead for the first time four minutes later, only to power Rafael's cross over the bar. Moments later, Macheda's deflected shot broke to Diouf, but Marshall sprinted from his line to again make a superb stop.

United's plans were dealt a setback when the lively Obertan made way through injury, with Will Keane introduced. It was Villa's Matthew Roome, however, who was the next player to come close to putting United ahead. The defender's spectacular attempt to head clear sent the ball spinning against his own post, and the rebound dropped agonisingly away from the lurking Keane.

That misery was compounded in the 82nd minute when a deep corner evaded Foster, and the unmarked Clark raced in at the back post to head his side into the lead for the third time. Two minutes later, the Villa skipper was fortunate not to concede a penalty for a clear barge on Macheda as the Italian raced into the area.

Incredibly, United's indefatigable spirit yielded another equaliser, with two minutes of normal time remaining. Macheda was again involved, as his chipped cross wrong-footed Roome, allowing Diouf to take a touch and smash home an emphatic finish from eight yards.

True to form, Villa again roared back. Delfouneso almost clinched a personal treble when his shot arrowed past Foster's top corner in the first seconds of injury-time, but there was no time for a winner to be decided in open play.

Instead, it was down to penalties. Macheda, Rodrigo Possebon and Foster all netted with ****** for United and, although Will Keane and Corry Evans both had efforts saved, Albrighton's miss and Foster's stops from Delfouneso and substitute James Collins gave the hosts the shield.

United: Foster; Rafael, De Laet, Gill, Dudgeon; Stewart (Obertan 55, W Keane 76), C Evans, Possebon, Norwood (Pogba 87); Diouf, Macheda.
Subs not used: Zieler, Wootton.

Penalties: Macheda scores; Bannan scores; Possebon scores; Albrighton misses (wide); Keane misses (saved); Weimann scores; Foster scores; Delfouneso misses (saved); Evans misses (saved); Collins misses (saved).


Manchester United Official Web Site
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Match report.
 
Sucks I missed this but the result is what matters. The reserves are undisputed Champions of England and they deserve a lot of credit for this.

Well done. The future is bright, the future is red. :devil:
 
Diouf first touch looked a lot better in that game and Macheda, well I truly question why we need Berbatov now.
 
Thanks for the videos, looked like a great game. Macheda and Diouf looks like a nice partnership, Macheda really does look classy though.
 
Leg-End said:
Thanks for the videos, looked like a great game. Macheda and Diouf looks like a nice partnership, Macheda really does look classy though.
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Yes Macheda is class and Diouf is raw goals. Can go on to be a great partnership. And then we can sell them to Madrid.
 
I don't know whether this was discussed earlier in the thread but I was puzzled by United's approach, given the team that Solskjaer had chosen. A three man central midfield, plus two strikers in a front three, is very suggestive of a certain way of playing. Whether the players simply failed to execute the plan, I have no idea, although the second half was much better, in some respects, but there was very little in the first half that even suggested that there was a gameplan.

In fairness, Villa's approach, which largely prevented our fullbacks from joining up in the final third, may have neutralized one of the vital elements of our gameplan, but even so, once that was realized fairly early on in the game, and once it became obvious that Villa were much the better side, I'm surprised that we didn't revert to the obvious approach which had the potential to stem the flow from Villa, as well as take control of the match for ourselves.

A 4-3-3, with three fairly orthodox central midfielders, all of which are comfortable on the ball, usually means that a team is looking to control the game primarily through retention of the ball. So, it was disappointing that, in the first half, particularly, the three players in midfield had almost no control of the ball, and as a consequence of that, the game, itself.

To be fair, as I've already mentioned, perhaps the idea was to utilize the wide areas with the fullbacks getting forward, but it was fairly clear within the first 15 minutes or so that that was Villa's strongest area of their team, and also the area that they were looking to exploit. At that point, even if ball retention hadn't been our original goal, it should quickly have become so. I suppose that with two strikers of the caliber that we had on the field, and the game being played on a pitch the size of Old Trafford, the plan might well have been to use a direct game in the hope of providing the two strikers with as much ball as possible, but whatever the original idea, it clearly didn't work very well in the first half.

There's no doubt that Villa were a good side, although that is a fairly ambiguous term, in all honesty. Bolton were a good side under Sam Allardyce, but most clubs fans would be horrified if they had to put up with some of the football that they produced every week. And you could say a similar thing about a Martin O'Neill side, and the Villa reserves that mimicked their first team counter-parts approach very closely, but for different reasons. They were extremely hard working, aggressive all over the pitch, utilized pace to maximum effect, predominantly attempted to exploit the wide areas and fashion positions so that they could cross a lot of balls in to the box. It's a simple but effective formula, but not really one that I would ever like to see at United, in all honesty.

Getting back to United reserves, while I was disappointed with their performance despite winning on penalties against a good side, I certainly have some sympathy with both the management and the players involved in the reserves. At United, it hardly constitutes a "team", at all, because of the ever-changing nature of the squad, with players moving in and out of the set-up. Good sides take years to develop a serious understanding, so it should hardly be a surprise that it is often not possible to achieve anything particularly spectacular in terms of fluency.
 
Joga_Bonito said:
I don't know whether this was discussed earlier in the thread but I was puzzled by United's approach, given the team that Solskjaer had chosen. A three man central midfield, plus two strikers in a front three, is very suggestive of a certain way of playing. Whether the players simply failed to execute the plan, I have no idea, although the second half was much better, in some respects, but there was very little in the first half that even suggested that there was a gameplan.

In fairness, Villa's approach, which largely prevented our fullbacks from joining up in the final third, may have neutralized one of the vital elements of our gameplan, but even so, once that was realized fairly early on in the game, and once it became obvious that Villa were much the better side, I'm surprised that we didn't revert to the obvious approach which had the potential to stem the flow from Villa, as well as take control of the match for ourselves.

A 4-3-3, with three fairly orthodox central midfielders, all of which are comfortable on the ball, usually means that a team is looking to control the game primarily through retention of the ball. So, it was disappointing that, in the first half, particularly, the three players in midfield had almost no control of the ball, and as a consequence of that, the game, itself.

To be fair, as I've already mentioned, perhaps the idea was to utilize the wide areas with the fullbacks getting forward, but it was fairly clear within the first 15 minutes or so that that was Villa's strongest area of their team, and also the area that they were looking to exploit. At that point, even if ball retention hadn't been our original goal, it should quickly have become so. I suppose that with two strikers of the caliber that we had on the field, and the game being played on a pitch the size of Old Trafford, the plan might well have been to use a direct game in the hope of providing the two strikers with as much ball as possible, but whatever the original idea, it clearly didn't work very well in the first half.

There's no doubt that Villa were a good side, although that is a fairly ambiguous term, in all honesty. Bolton were a good side under Sam Allardyce, but most clubs fans would be horrified if they had to put up with some of the football that they produced every week. And you could say a similar thing about a Martin O'Neill side, and the Villa reserves that mimicked their first team counter-parts approach very closely, but for different reasons. They were extremely hard working, aggressive all over the pitch, utilized pace to maximum effect, predominantly attempted to exploit the wide areas and fashion positions so that they could cross a lot of balls in to the box. It's a simple but effective formula, but not really one that I would ever like to see at United, in all honesty.

Getting back to United reserves, while I was disappointed with their performance despite winning on penalties against a good side, I certainly have some sympathy with both the management and the players involved in the reserves. At United, it hardly constitutes a "team", at all, because of the ever-changing nature of the squad, with players moving in and out of the set-up. Good sides take years to develop a serious understanding, so it should hardly be a surprise that it is often not possible to achieve anything particularly spectacular in terms of fluency.
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Looking at the celebrations after the shoot out I would say there's plenty of team spirit there whether you'd describe it as a "team" or not. The spirit has to cascade right through the club from the 1st team downwards, and looking at the coaches I'd say they've done a good job in that respect
 
Macheda seems to develop his game and become more versatile. Good to see. As for the reserves and Ole, well done, and I am sure with more experience, Ole will do a better job as he continues. We have some great talents in our team and hopefully, they will become great players for us
 
Fantastic match, really enjoyed watching it yesterday and it was one of the most exciting finals I've seen in a long time. The quality was certainly questionable at times, Diouf was getting into good positions but his finishing was poor despite getting 2 goals because he had about 7 good chances with 4 or 5 of them being very good ones. Foster's positioning and general play was also below-par (though shot-stopping was brilliant) as was our defending (apart from Rafael) with De Laet making the type of mistake that was a perrenial problem when he arrived. Our midfield also really struggled to impose themselves in the first half.

However, we really showed some great quality going forward in the second half and the character the players showed to keep coming back, even at the end when it seemed all was lost, was very impressive. I have to say, Federico Macheda characterised everything that was good about us going forward yesterday - he instigated the attacks. Playing in a left-wing forward position which is relatively unknown territory for him, he really looked like a complete forward and showed the advancement in his overall game, something that we have seen in glimpses this season. Awesome performance by him, assisted 2 goals and created the chance that led to the penalty as well as scoring the penalty and made several other chances.

Great game and an excellent comeback, well done to Solskjaer and the reserve team for a brilliant season.
 
Foster is a bit shit really.

He can make wonderful stops,etc but consistency is what makes a keeper great.
 
Macheda really was impressive. It was just the kind of performance that shows he is making good progress behind the scenes. Congratulations to Ole and the lads.
 
Virtuoso said:
Fantastic match, really enjoyed watching it yesterday and it was one of the most exciting finals I've seen in a long time. The quality was certainly questionable at times, Diouf was getting into good positions but his finishing was poor despite getting 2 goals because he had about 7 good chances with 4 or 5 of them being very good ones.





Although good chances I think it is a little harsh to criticise too much; the Villa keeper played well and got to the ball very quickly giving Diouf little space or time to get the ball past him for most of those chances. I thought he was a constant danger to the Villa back four --- raw yes but looks to me like a very good prospect
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Just found that.
 
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